The Savvy Tech Strategy Behind Obamacare

snydeq writes "The U.S. health care industry is undergoing several massive transformations, not the least of which is the shift to interoperable EHR (electronic health records) systems. The ONC's Doug Fridsma discusses the various issues that many health care IT and medical providers have raised regarding use of these systems, which are mandated for 2014 under the HITECH Act of 2004, and are all the more important in light of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. Key to the transition, says Fridsma, is transforming health IT for EHRs into something more akin to the Internet, and less like traditional ERP and IT systems. 'I think what we're trying to do is the equivalent of what you've got in the Internet, which is horizontal integration rather than vertical integration,' Fridsma says. 'We've done a lot of work looking at what other countries have done, and we've tried to learn from those experiences. Rather than trying to build this top down and create restrictions, we're really trying to ask, "What's the path of least regret in what we need to do?"'"

Comments

Too bad someone didn't figure this all out

[hsmith]

Before the govt started handing out $44k for docs to adopt shitty EHR systems and collect free money. We now have a plethora of shitty EHR systems in hospitals that don't solve any issues at all.

So, the government created this incentive (Which made a few companies insanely rich, like Epic, Cerner, and Athena) - and created this massive siloed data mess. Anyone who has worked in HIT knows what a complete failure this EHR rollout has been on every front.

Even better are the CHIIT "certification" standards (aka, a complete pile of shit) which were to ensure that EHR software met a bunch of standards to get that $44k. One of the hallmarks was "Interoperability" - which to CHIIT meant "systems can communicate with themselves" - derp.

The EHR rollout was a complete failure, mainly due to the govt pushing shit out on the marketplace with their stupid incentives. It is going to take over a decade to untangle the mess of complete crap.

Re:Too bad someone didn't figure this all out

[cs668]

Actually makes things worse. Because when the EHR's are in place they usually make sure to maximize the billable services provided in the back office so that you make sure to submit every claim possible. This helps to raise healthcare costs instead of lowering them by reducing paperwork......

Re:Too bad someone didn't figure this all out

[PatHMV]

Right on. Moreover, who benefits from all this, anyway? The idea is that the patient benefits, because an ER doc at one facility can see all of that patient's health records when treating him. But what if the patient doesn't want that? The reality is that all this centralized electronic data will benefit insurance companies, not patients. Once certain things (epilepsy, say) are flagged in your electronic, accessible to any person authorized by law to see them (and that will be insurance companies, governments, and probably your own employer at some point), then it's there, and you're tagged for life. Good luck getting a driver's license. Or overcoming the stigma of some unpopular disease.

I don't WANT all of my medical records out there. I don't think it will benefit me or my health. But these days I have little choice.

Re:Too bad someone didn't figure this all out

[AK Marc]

As opposed to the EHR before Obama, where I literally had to pay $200 for a hard copy of my X-ray to walk it two doors down the hall to give it to the doctor, who had to go walk down the hall the original place to see the electronic stored copy because the resolution wasn't sufficient on the hard copy, but it was stored electronically. I never had a patient system that talked to any others.

I moved out of the US, now any doctor I go to in the country, can look me up by name and DOB and see my entire medical history (or health care number, which nobody ever has on them).

The problem the US commits every time is that they ask the people who profit from the systems, how to make them. Every solution I've seen could have been done better by a bunch of high school students. The pros have a vested interest in making it fail. The worse it works, the longer they have jobs. And never are there financial penalties in government contracts.

Bingo

[Anonymous Coward]

I just filled out my BS bingo card when they called both "horizontal integration" and "vertical integration".

On topic: The path of least regret would have been single payer system, but we somehow ended up with a Republican profit-utopia called "Obamacare".

Learning from what other countries have done?

[Hatta]

Other countries have single payer health care, which delivers better outcomes at a lower cost. Try learning from that.